All Is Lost - Review

When writer-director J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) pitched his ''existential action movie'' about an old man all alone aboard his sinking sailboat in the Indian Ocean, execs flinched at the brief 30-page script, which featured hardly any dialogue. Where were the flashbacks? Where was the volleyball companion? Instead, Chandor bet on his 76-year-old star, Robert Redford, to silently carry every frame. ''I needed an actor who had a very deep relationship with an audience to be able to pull that off,'' says Chandor.